A former Worcester student and BBC journalist has today been expelled from Russia and dubbed a threat to Russian security after over 20 years in the country. 

Sarah Rainsford, a former pupil of both Blessed Edward Oldcorne RC High and Worcester Sixth Form College, was told by Russian authorities earlier this month she would never be allowed back into the country after her visa expired at the end of August. 

Mrs Rainsford told of how she sat and cried in an airport terminal after being informed that she was being forced to leave, she said: "To be honest, it's devastating personally but it's also shocking.

Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Rainsford said: "Russia has never been a posting for me: it's not just any old place. It is a country that I've devoted a huge amount of my life to trying to understand.

"I calculated just now that it's almost a third of my life I've lived in Russia, so one way or another: learning the language, studying the culture, the history, living here, trying to understand the people, and of course as a journalist, over many years for the BBC, on and off, working in Russia."

This came as part of retaliatory actions from the Russian government, who have cited the UK's refusal to grant visas for Russian journalists, alongside sanctions over human rights violations as reasons for the expulsion. 

"We were told officially about one case [where a journalist's visa had been refused or delayed by the UK]. It's a case that was two years ago," she added.

"There are also separate reasons that I've been given, including sanctions by the British government against Russian citizens - for human rights violations in Chechnya, and also a list of people sanctioned for corruption.

"But it is clearly in the context of a massive deterioration in relations between Russia and the UK and, more broadly, Russia and the West.

"I said, when this bombshell was dropped, to the people who were delivering this information: 'I'm not your enemy'. I've tried my hardest to understand this country and to tell the story of this country and it is something that's very close to my heart.

"You're removing from Russia somebody who understands Russia, who speaks directly to people in Russia and tries to explain Russia to the world, and that's becoming increasingly difficult.

"The reality is that they don't want people like that here. It's much easier to have fewer people here who understand and who can talk directly to people and hear their stories.

"It's much easier, perhaps, to have people who don't speak the language, don't know the country so deeply. I really think it is indicative of an increasingly difficult and repressive environment."

Mrs Rainsford learnt Russian at Worcester Sixth Form College and went on to read it alongside French at Cambridge. 

Having visited Russia during her studies, she joined the BBC in Moscow in 2000 after a spell with American news agency Bloomberg. 

During her tenure in Eastern Europe, she covered all manner of current affairs and disasters, including the Beslan school atrocity in 2004, which saw 335 people killed after the school was taken over by Chechen separatist terrorists.

During the siege, her father, Derek Rainsford, formerly of Drakes Broughton, spoke of his deep concern for his daughter.

"I really do fear for her - especially for what she has witnessed. But it isn't my place to stand in the way of a job she loves," he said.

"I sent her a text message saying we were thinking about her and the awful scenes she has had to report on.

"She's been broadcasting morning, noon and night, and I wonder when she's had a chance to eat and sleep."

More recently, Mrs Rainsford had flown to Belarus to report on the suppression of mass protests by Vladimir Putin's close friend and president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko branded Mrs Rainsford as an "American lapdog" live on Belarusian television in a heated outburst against the west. 

"The pressure on activists, critics and now journalists have intensified in the past year, since opposition politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned," she added.

"In the run-up to next month's elections to parliament, it's increased further still.

"Nervous after last year's giant protests in Belarus over a rigged vote, the Kremlin seems set on stamping out critical voices here, all hint of real competition. Silencing the free press is central to that.

"Many people I've interviewed in the past have now left Russia for safety. Others admit they have an escape plan, somewhere to run to.

"I never thought for a moment that I'd be joining them on the outside.

"And I'm going with the labels "anti-Russian" and "security threat" ringing in my ears."